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INVADA RECORDS

South Bristol’s Invada Records is the label and recording studio founded by Geoff Barrow of Portishead. A hard-working operation concerned only with the music, Invada is at the heart of the film-score resurgence. Long Live Vinyl sits down with label manager Redg Weeks to find out the Invada story…

Interview Luke & Tom Friend

How did Invada Records start?

“Geoff Barrow came back from Australia after taking a small period of time out of the UK and got together with Fat Paul, who’s a local entrepreneur, venue owner, gig promoter and a guy who’d previously had a number of small, yet successful, independent Bristol record labels – and between the two of them, they founded Invada. Th remit was to release pretty much anything they wanted, no matter how obscure. Essentially, ‘we put out what we want, when we want’. This was around 2002, 2003 I believe.”

From those beginnings, how did Invada become the label it is now? Would you even describe Invada as a soundtrack label?

“I would and I wouldn’t. I would say that we’ve become synonymous with soundtracks over the past five years, but we never set out to change the format of what Invada was about. It’s just happened organically, through a series of events, which includes Geoff getting into writing film scores with Ben Salisbury.”

What was the first release that really signified the label’s move into the new territory of film scores and soundtracks?

“I joined the label in 2009 but the real turning point wasn’t until 2011 to 2012, when there was talk of us bringing out Drokk, which was the project Geoff and Ben had just done with 2000 AD comics. I had also brought in the Drive film score at around the same time, so we had two relatively big records that were film scores and I think those two paved the way for the label to start to consider putting out more soundtracks and scores…”

Drive was a big one, wasn’t it?

“It was massive. I saw the film around October 2011. People were already buying the music on iTunes, and those buying it were across a broad spectrum: your average Joe, people who’d buy Aphex Twin, Orbital, Prodigy, bands like that, as well as people who were into film soundtracks, and then people like me, who were listening to a lot of different stuff. Th Drive soundtrack just ticked a lot of boxes. So I reached out to the film company and we did the deal really quickly.”

About Long Live Vinyl

The Godfather, Super Fly, Blade Runner, Purple Rain, Clockwork Orange, The Graduate, The Wicker Man, Pulp Fiction, Help!… In issue 17 of Long Live Vinyl we salute soundtracks, round up 50 of the greatest film classics ever committed to vinyl and talk to the good people at Invada Records, who brought us the Stranger Things and Drive soundtracks.
Elsewhere this issue, in our packed interviews section we speak to Creation Records founder Alan McGee about the albums that shaped his incredible career in vinyl, working with an astonishing array of bands that included Ride, My Bloody Valentine, Primal Scream, Oasis and The Libertines. Ash frontman Tim Wheeler reflects on travelling the world to write the band's best new album in years, Islands, and Gruff Rhys tells us about his own new record Babelsberg. The ever-outspoken John Lydon completes our artist line-up, telling us why he's happier in Public Image Ltd than he ever was in the Sex Pistols.
You'll also want to dig into our feature on Grime, arguably the most exciting and fresh musical movement to emerge from British shores since Lydon's punks shook up the 70s. The Trip pays a long-overdue visit to the record shops of Birmingham, while we wish Kate Bush a happy 60th birthday as our Classic Album series turns the spotlight on her 1985 masterpiece, Hounds Of Love. The Who fans, meanwhile, are in for a treat as our Essential feature rounds up the 40 records by Townshend, Daltrey, Moon and Entwistle that every collector should own.
We meet the people behind Hypergallery, visit Newport's Diverse Vinyl and, if all that's not enough, you'll find the widest range of new release, reissue, turntable and accessory reviews anywhere on the newsstand, plus essential hi-fi buying advice.
Long Live Vinyl is THE magazine for vinyl lovers!
Enjoy the issue.